Agni Kai
by Sorako
Summary: Oneshot. In order to challenge Zuko to an Agni Kai, Katara has to bend some rules. Among other things. [mild Zutara]


**Disclaimer: **Avatar (c) Mike, Bryan & Nick, obviously.

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"My Lord."

Fire Lord Iroh turned around when the servant hurried up to him. "What is it?"

"I wasn't sure whether I should bother you about this, but I heard that Prince Zuko and the esteemed Lady Katara are down in the Agni Kai arena and about to fight each other."

Iroh groaned. Where did he go wrong? He had left those two alone less than half an hour ago, and they were actually having a civil, yes, an almost friendly conversation at that point. He had been so proud of his nephew for not antagonizing the Avatar's companion for once.

Then he remembered that the conversation had been about the creative use of firebending, and suddenly he could see how things could have gone downhill from there on. Sighing again, Iroh nodded to the servant and headed into the direction of the arena.

"Thanks for letting me know. Zuko should know that the Agni Kai arena is off limits for mere training fights."

And he should also know, Iroh added silently, that there were severe laws that didn't allow any other benders than fire benders on the royal Agni Kai grounds. Katara could get into serious trouble if word got around about this.

As it happened, word of another clash between the resident fire prince and the water bender girl already had already gotten around the castle sufficiently when Iroh arrived at the scene. Several people had assembled to watch the confrontation. A number of guards were hovering around the room as well, not quite sure whether it was more risky to face the wrath of the fire nobles if they didn't apprehend the fighters for misusing the duel grounds, or the immediate wrath of Prince Zuko if they dared to interrupt.

"Well", said Zuko, standing on one side of the battleground, with a sinister face and his arms crossed. "I TOLD you the only techniques allowed in this arena are fire and hand-to-hand combat."

"Don't worry, your Highness." Katara took her water skin off her back and glared at her opponent. "I understood those rules perfectly."

Zuko snorted. Neither he nor Katara seemed to pay the growing mass of spectators much mind, they were too caught up in their spat. "So you're telling me you're planning to defeat me with hand-to-hand moves only? You're an even greater fool than I thought."

"I didn't say that either. Why don't you just attack if you're so sure of yourself?"

"There are RULES to this, you uncivilised peasant! Have you been listening at all to anything I told you before you challenged me to this nonsensical duel?"

"Yeah yeah, I know. We need to be shirtless, we need to kneel with our backs to each other at first, we each need an assistant, I got it." Katara snorted and rolled her eyes, but started to undress herself.

"What are you DOING?!" Zuko all but shrieked embarrassedly. "I swear, you savages have no sense of mod-…"

He stopped when he saw that Katara had merely let the top of her shirt slide over her shoulders so that it was now only held by her belt, and that she did indeed wear something under that. Katara flexed her arms experimentally and then pulled the next guard over to her side.

"You can be my assistant. Hold this for me, please?" She gave her water skin to the poor fire nation soldier, who very much looked like he wanted to be elsewhere right now. Then she knelt down with her back towards the fire prince. "Happy now?"

Zuko had watched her actions with growing anger. "You little freak. Don't think you can get away making fun of our traditions like that. I won't go easy on you just because you're parading your idiocy around!"

He discarded his own shirt and waved a nearby guard over to be his assistant. Throwing a positively murderous look at the waterbender's back he turned around himself.

Iroh figured that if there was a time to intervene, it was now or never. But somehow, he also was quite curious on what Katara was planning to do - and so he just stood back and watched. The guards, seeing their Lord's actions, stepped back as well.

"Begin."

The two fighters rose, and Zuko immediately threw a volley of fire blasts at his opponent. Katara jumped back, the fire scorching the ground just beneath her feet. Zuko smirked. Whatever the little peasant was planning, it would not work – fire techniques were long-range by nature, and with her not being allowed to use water on the fire duel grounds, there was no way she could come close enough to him without being…

Zuko was so caught up in his observations that he was almost hit full in the face by the fire whip which was suddenly lashing out at him at lightning-speed. With a surprised yell he dodged the attack and rolled back to his feet again.

Incredulously he stared at the water bender. There she stood, wielding a stream of fire right in front of her, displaying a face-splitting, entirely too smug grin. The audience whispered and murmured in disbelief as well. Whatever Katara had done, it had happened to fast that few people had even seen it. Iroh, on the other hand, almost laughed. So simple, and so clever.

"Surprised? I told you water techniques are so much more versatile than your flame- sprouting."

Finally, Zuko understood when his eyes flashed to the water skin in the hands of her surprised assistant. It had been opened. Katara was not actually bending fire – she was bending inflammable liquid. Oil maybe, or, more likely, petroleum. And he had even set it on fire for her with his attack!

"You're… cheating!", he blurted out, not caring how childish that sounded. "You're still waterbending."

"Oh, I don't know." Katara grinned. "I may be waterbending, but what I'm attacking you with is quite obviously fire. That's not breaking Agni Kai rules, am I right?"

Zuko's head whipped around when he heard his uncle's voice guffaw out. For the first time, he seemed to realize how many people Katara' s and his disagreement had attracted, and it made him even more angry.

"I'm afraid there's little I can do about that reasoning, my dear nephew." Iroh wiped the corner of his eyes. "This is an unprecedented case."

"So, do you admit that waterbending is better than firebending, Zuko?" Katara called out to him tauntingly, cocking her head to the side. She was quite prepared to let their little fight end with this, she had had her moment of surprising him.

But she probably should have known that Zuko wouldn't let her get the better of him in front of all these people. With an angry yell, he lunged at her again, more quickly than before, and willed the fire of her whip to extinguish. She yelped in surprise and stumbled back as she managed to dodge his blows only barely. Zuko didn't call up fire anymore, so she couldn't relight her whip again… and her pride didn't allow it to strike back with just the oil.

However, she knew that without bending, Zuko would defeat her in less than two seconds. Already, he swept her off her feet with a roundabout kick, immediately trying to wrestle her to the ground. At the last moment, Katara let the oil lash out towards the torches on the walls outside the ring, lighting the whip once more, and managed to beat him back.

This was getting dangerous, she realized. While bending burning oil was a nice surprise trick, it was extremely hard to control. If she wasn't careful, she could accidentally drop it all over herself and there was no telling what damage that could cause, especially since there wasn't a single drop of water anywhere in the vicinity.

"Scared of your own weapon?", smirked Zuko. He had seen how she had struggled to control the burning liquid for a moment, and conjured a fire whip on his own. "I hope you realized playing with fire is dangerous."

"Look who's talking!" Katara retaliated by shooting little oil darts at Zuko, who quenched their fire in mid-air.

"You know, I can just wait until your oil burns out.", he remarked in a bored tone.

"But that would hardly prove your point", Katara shot back. "This was about proving who can make better use of his bending in an Agni Kai, remember? We're doing a fire duel, you're a freaking firebender, and frankly, as of yet, you haven't impressed me at all."

Zuko gaped at her bluntness. The nerve of that girl!

"Not impressed, huh?", he repeated with a curious mix of a glare and a smirk. And without any other word he dropped down and put his hands on the stone floor of the ring. Katara was just about to ask quizzically what exactly he was trying to accomplish with fake earthbending, when the ground beneath her bare feet rapidly became hotter and hotter. Before she could do anything, the stone plates seemed to groan under the extreme heat and then just exploded into flame- coloured glowing chunks. Katara yelped in pain, eyes searching wildly for a spot that was not blistering hot… but then, she lost control over the oil whip. The remaining liquid dropped to the ground around her and immediately burned up. Katara had no other choice with an angry yell she leapt out of the ring and away from the glowing stones that were trying to burn her feet of.

"I guess that means I win", Zuko stated, standing on the only plate left in the arena that hadn't been transformed into glowing chunks of rock, and gods, she just wanted to wipe that stupid smirk off his face with a load of her patented burning oil. It didn't help that those opportunistic, patriotic spectators of the fight were cheering for their Prince's victory over the insolent water peasant.

"You… cheated!", she blurted out in frustration.

"Oh, I don't know." Zuko grinned, mirroring her previous smug expression. "After all, what I attacked you with was quite obviously fire."

Iroh smiled as Katara cursed colourfully and shouted something about "rematch", "palace garden" and "half an hour" at his nephew. The destruction of the century-old Agni Kai arena was certainly not something to be happy about, but seeing Zuko use such creative, earthbending-inspired bending methods certainly was.

- - - - - - -

Katara had refused any help with getting out of the arena to a source of water where she could heal her feet. So she only made it as far as to the palace gardens, where she let her feet drop into the cool water of the next best pond with a content sigh.

"You shouldn't do that. We keep shark-alligators in that pond", remarked Zuko dryly. Katara yelped and jumped back at least three meters. Glaring at the prince, she bended some water out of the pond and proceeded to heal her feet. Zuko almost winced at the sight of her blistered and flaming red soles.

"I'm sorry. Does it still hurt?"

Katara gaped at him. "If you think you can escape being frozen to a tree by playing nice with me now, you're dead wrong."

Zuko growled. "You are so-…"

"Oh, save it.", muttered Katara, and for a moment, the two just sat there in a sulking, but strangely comfortable silence while Katara healed herself.

"Anyway, that was kind of impressive, that floor- exploding trick of yours", Katara then said casually. "Though you obviously stole it from Toph, of course."

"Of course", replied Zuko lazily. "Only that Toph can't fry other people's feet…" - he held up a hand when Katara opened her mouth to snap at him – "anyway, I've got to admit you really had me there with the burning oil for a moment. I couldn't believe my eyes at first."

Katara giggled. "Stole that one from Sokka."

"Figures." Zuko hid a smile.

"So, am I going to get arrested and executed? For having a fire duel on those sacred grounds with you while I am a waterbender?", Katara inquired, savouring the cool water on her skin and the subsiding pain.

"You probably would have if you had beaten me", murmured Zuko dryly.

"Charming." Katara wiggled her toes experimentally. "Finished healing."

"Well, I guess you can try freezing me to a tree now."

But Katara just smiled. "Maybe another time."

**ende**


End file.
